Little Busybodies

Little Busybodies, by Jeanette
Augustus Marks

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Marks and Julia Moody
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Title: Little Busybodies The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees, Beetles, and
Other Busybodies
Author: Jeanette Augustus Marks and Julia Moody

Release Date: June 27, 2007 [eBook #21948]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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BUSYBODIES***
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LITTLE BUSYBODIES
The Life of Crickets, Ants, Bees Beetles, and Other Busybodies
by
JEANNETTE MARKS and JULIA MOODY of Mount Holyoke
College
Illustrated

[Illustration: 1. Cicada Killer 2. May-fly 3. Lacewing-fly 4. Dragon-fly
5. Aphis 6. June-Beetle 7. Cicada 8. Lady-Beetle 9. Mole Cricket E. L.
Beutenmuller]
Harper & Brothers Publishers New York and London MCMIX
* * * * *
STORY-TOLD SCIENCE For Children from Eight to Fourteen Years
of Age
Other Books for the Series:
CRUSTY COUSINS: Crabs, Spiders, etc.
SHELL DWELLERS AND URCHINS: Clams, Oysters, Snails,
Starfish, Sea Urchins
HATCHING WATER BABIES: Fish and Frogs

BIRD WITS
LITTLE MAMMALS
FLOWERS
A series intended to cover simple types of plant and animal life,
arranged in logical order
* * * * *
Harper & Brothers, Publishers, N. Y. Copyright, 1909, by Harper &
Brothers. All rights reserved. Published April, 1909.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
A WORD TO THE CHILDREN AND THE WISE v
I. THE JOURNEY 1 II. RANGELEY VILLAGE 11 III. THE LITTLE
ARMY (Locusts and Grasshoppers) 21 IV. FIDDLERS (Crickets) 34 V.
HOW KATY DID (Katydids) 43 VI. FISHING (Dragon-flies) 50 VII.
THE SWIMMING-POOL (The May-fly) 61 VIII. THE RAINY DAY
(Leaf and Tree Hoppers) 68 IX. THE PRIZE (Lace-Wing, Ant-Lion,
and Caddis-Worm) 77 X. A NAGGING FAMILY (Flies and
Mosquitoes) 90 XI. CAMPING OUT (Butterflies and Moths) 103 XII.
CAMP-IN-THE-CLOUDS (Butterflies and Moths, continued) 114 XIII.
STORM BOUND (Beetles) 122 XIV. A DAY'S HUNTING (Bees) 136
XV. LEAVING CAMP (Wasps) 153 XVI. EYES AND NO EYES
(Ants) 167
NOTE.--We do not think it practicable to give classifications except as
they exist unnamed in the above titles: (1) straight winged: locusts,
grasshoppers, crickets, katydids; (2) tooth-shaped: dragon-flies; (3)
ephemerals: may-flies; (4) half-winged: leaf and tree hoppers; (5)
nerve-winged: lace-wings, ant-lions, and caddis-worms; (6)

two-winged: flies and mosquitoes; (7) scaly winged: butterflies and
moths; (8) sheath-winged: beetles; (9) membranous-winged: bees,
wasps, and ants.

A WORD TO THE CHILDREN AND THE WISE
We hope that the children who read this book will like the boys and
girls who are in it. They are real, and the good times they have are real,
as any boy or girl who has lived out-of-doors will know. And the
stories are true. Peter is not always good. But do you expect a child
always to be good? We do not. Sometimes, too, the frolics turn in to a
scramble to catch a dragon-fly that will not be caught, and there are
accidents. Also, Betty and Jack work hard to win a prize which the
guide gives to the child who learns most about ants.
Of course it would be impossible for five children to go in search of
locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, dragon-flies, May-flies,
leaf-hoppers, lace-wings, caddis-worms, butterflies, beetles, bees,
wasps--and so many other six-legged creatures that among them they
have wings and legs enough to fill a new Pandora's box--without
having a good deal happen. And a good deal does happen. It is all true
enough, and every word about the six-legged busybodies is true as true.
The other books, too, that come after this in our Story-Told Science
Series will be every word true.
And we who wrote this book? Well, we, too, have been children. We
used to climb trees and turn somersaults; why--But that is another story!
And we remember so well what it used to be like to have to learn dull
things we did not wish to know. So we said to ourselves, as we looked
over our spectacles at each other, "No, they sha'n't be told a single
uninteresting fact; they sha'n't be dull, poor dears, as we were so long
ago, before we put on spectacles and began to call ourselves wise."
And so, although we sat down and wrote a book just about long enough
for a school-year's work; although we felt very proud because our
stories had more wonderful six-legged creatures than any book written

for children; although we